


Memories of the Dead

by fallingnights



Series: We're In The Endgame Now. [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, BAMF Pepper Potts, BAMF Peter Parker, Gen, No Beta, Peter Parker is a Good Bro, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), We Die Like Men, everybody deserves better, projecting my daddy issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-10 17:10:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18664747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingnights/pseuds/fallingnights
Summary: Morgan Stark didn't remember her father. All she had was a few fading memories and the stories of others.





	Memories of the Dead

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, friends. I just wanted to test the waters for a little idea I had about Morgan Stark. Please leave comments. I'd love to know what you think! :D

Morgan Stark doesn’t remember her father. She’s heard stories about him. She watched the videos, tapes, and documentaries and shes read the biographies but she doesn’t remember him. It's been ten years since she last talked to him and the few memories she has are slipping away.

“Dum-E. Hi, Dum-E!” She watches the holographic screen as her dad turns to face Dum-E. He’s in his lab at the old mansion in Malibu, she thinks. Her mom said these tapes were from 2013, after the Battle of New York but before the Mandarin attacks. “How did you earn that cap?” He asks, pointing it Dum-E stepping towards him. “You earned it.” Morgan mouthed along, turning to look at Dum-E who was watching over her shoulder. “So what are you doing out of the corner?” Tony scolded. “You know what you did.” 

Dum-E let out a whirl over her shoulder and she laughed, patting him on the camera. “Blood. On my mat.” Tony pointed. On-screen, Dum-E let out a sad whirl. “Handle it.”

“Sir, may I remind that you’ve been awake for nearly 72 hours.” Jarvis chimed it. To Morgan, it always seemed like Jarvis was the voice of reason in the room. Morgan wished she could have met him. Tony ignored him as he moved to stand on the raised platform in the middle of the room. Behind him stood a gallery of different version of Iron Man suits. He clapped his hands.

“Focus up, ladies. Good evening and welcome to the birthing suite. I am pleased to announce the imminent arrival of your bouncing, bad-ass baby brother.” He pointed directly at the camera. “Start tight and then go wide.” He took on a dramatic voice. “Mark 42. Autonomous prehensile propulsion suit test initialize sequence. Jarvis, drop my needle-.”

“Mogan,” She slammed her laptop shut as her mom pulled opened the door to her bedroom. “People are-. Are you okay?” Pepper asked, slowly shutting the door and flicking on the lights.

“Yeah, I’m good. 100%.” She lied, her heart pounding from the scare. Pepper gave her the side eye before walking up to her. 

“Okay. Why are you sitting on the ground with Dum-E in the dark?”

“I was just watching something,” Morgan muttered, looking down. Pepper softened and slid next to her. She pulled an arm around Morgan and Morgan leaned into the touch. 

“Hey, it's okay. You don’t have to tell me.” Morgan let out a sigh and pulled open the laptop. 

“I was just. I just wanted to.” She couldn’t get the words out and looks down at the ground. 

“Oh, hey. It's okay. There’s nothing wrong with that.” Pepper smiled. “I do it a lot too. Have you watched the ones where he’s first testing the Iron Man suit?” Morgan laughed, remembering the video of her dad slamming into the ceiling. “This one,” Pepper smiled, pointing at the screen. “I was so angry when I found him in the lab. When I first came home, he sent an Iron Man suit to talk to me instead of just coming upstairs.” Morgan leaned in closer and smiled. She had heard this story a hundred times but loved hearing it just as much as she did the first time. 

“Thank you,” she muttered. 

“Are you going to be okay with the party? I can cancel it if you want too. We can tell everybody you got sick.” 

“Would you be okay with that?” Morgan said, pulling away. “You spent a lot of time planning this and I-.” Pepper cut her off. 

“Of course.” Pepper smiled and ran a hand through Morgan’s hair. “We can stay up here and watch videos and eat ice cream and cake if that's what you want.”

“That’s what I want.” 

“Then that’s what we’ll do. Let me send out the message and grab the ice cream.” She gives Morgan a quick kiss on the forehead and stands up. “Hulk-A-Burning-Fudge or Black Widow Brownie Batter?” 

“Stark Raving Hazelnuts.” 

“Good taste.” Pepper grinned, pulling open the door. “I’ll be back 

“Hey, mom?” Morgan called. “I love you.” 

“Love you too. Happy Birthday ” Morgan turned back to her computer and clicked the video back on, Christmas music blasting from the speaker.  
*****  
“Oh, uh, hey, Morgan.” Peter blinked, pulling open his apartment door. 

“Hey, Peter.” She responded nonchalantly. Morgan leans forward and glances around his apartment. “Can I come in?” 

“Yeah, uh, of course. Come on in.” She stepped and starts wandering the room, the apartment was a disaster but she ignored it all in favor of looking at the framed pictures on the wall. “Does your mom know you’re here?” His voice came out a little more panicked then he probably meant. 

“Kinda.” She shrugged her shoulders, not caring to elaborate at all. Peter blinked before pulling his phone and texting Pepper. 

“So, what can I do for you?” He asked, walking up beside her. 

“I just wanted to talk to someone. I just, erm, had a bad day." Morgan looks uncomfortable as soon as the words come out of her mouth. "God, it's dumb. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come.” Morgan looks like she's going to bolt. Peter stops her

“No, hey, it’s okay. We all have bad days. Why don’t I make you some hot chocolate and we talk about it?” That’s what Mr. Stark did for him and it always seemed to help. She hesitates for a second but did follows him to the kitchen. She pulls out a chair and sits. Peter grabs two cups of hot water and pours two packets of mix in both. “Whip Cream and marshmallows?” He asks. 

“Huh, yeah. Thank you.” He slides the cup of hot chocolate to her and sits down across from her. 

“So, kid. What’s got you down?” Morgan looks down at her drink.

“It's dumb.” God, Peter sighs, he's pretty sure he said the same things to Mr. Stark and it always ends the same way. 

“Obviously it’s not.” He coaxed, taking a sip of cocoa. 

“Well, you know it's Fathers Day.” Oh shit. It was? She continued on, not noticing Peter’s look of surprise. “And my English teacher wanted us all to write about the best memory we had with our dads like we’re five and I had nothing to write.” Her voice cracked on the last word. “And SI is having problems, so mom is dealing with that and I know she’s having a hard time too and I didn’t want to make it harder, so now I’m here.” Peter was not ready for that. Where’s May or MJ when you need them? 

“God, it’s dumb. I’m sorry.” She muttered, wiping away tears. 

“You know, I don’t remember my dad either.” Don’t make it worse. Don’t make it worse. “I get it: the pain and frustration when you just can’t remember. It’s awful. It's hard, but, Morg, it's just something we have to work through and you can’t do that by holding back how you feel; by shaming yourself for feeling bad.” 

“Wow. You give the Avengers inspirational speeches like that?” Morgan said, trying to joke away the emotions. Peter laughs. 

“That’s not my deal, that’s Captain America 2.0’s job.” Morgan laughs. 

“I see why.” She pauses and hesitates for a second, before asking. “Can you, um, tell me a story about him. Just, something.” 

“Hm.” He leans back and considers. “Okay. So, I had this brilliant idea to try and make exploding webs and you can probably guess how well that worked out.” Peter starts regaling her with tales of their genius and stupidity. 

Pepper opens the door slowly listening to the distant laughter of her kids. Peter had left the door unlocked for her and she certainly didn’t want to disturb them. 

“-as focused, working on my web shooter when Mr. Stark snuck up on me, well, walked up behind me without giving a warning. I ended up webbing him to the wall.” Morgan nearly spit out her drink. 

“Oh, my god. What did you do?” 

“I freaked out and ending up knocking over the webs and spilling them all over my hand, causing me to get struck to the table. So we were both just kind of stuck there until it dissolved.” 

“Oh?” Pepper said, stepping into the kitchen. “I clearly remember FRIDAY telling me that you were in desperate need of assistance and having to come down and get you two unstuck myself.” Morgan choked on her drink in laughter. Peter goes bright red.

“Um, hi, Mrs. Stark.” 

“Oh, no. Keep going.” She said, sitting at the table. “Please, I want to hear this.”  
*****  
“Everybody wants a happy ending, right? But it doesn’t always roll that way.” Her dad said, leaning forward on the holographic chair. “ Maybe this time. I'm hoping if you play this back... it's in celebration. I hope families are reunited. I hope we get it back, and somewhat normal version of the planet has been restored, if there ever was such a thing.” She looked up at Tony, tightening the screw on one of the finger joints of the gauntlet she's working on. 

“God, what a world. Universe now. If you told me 10 years ago that we weren't alone, let alone you know to this extent... I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised. But come on, you know. That epic forces of darkness and light that have come into play. And for better or worse, that's the reality Morgan's going to find a way to grow up in.” Morgan flexed her fingers, checking the motion of the fingers. She smiled as it worked before moving her attention to the band. 

“So I found a private area to record a little greeting in case of an untimely death on my part. Not that death at any time is ever timely. This time travel thing that we are going to pull off tomorrow... it's got me scratching my head about the survivability of all this. But then again that's the hero gig.” 

Morgan gently places the band into the gauntlet, twisting wires together to combine it into the ultimate tool. “Part of the journey is the end. What am I tripping for? Everything is going to work out exactly the way it's supposed to. I love you 3000.” 

“I love you 3000.” She whispers back. She lifts her hand and watchs the Iron Man gauntlet move. Morgan had used one of the older blueprints for the gauntlet since she didn’t have all the materials for the nanotechnology her dad use. She did, however, have the materials for the time travel band that her dad had built. Unlike her dad, however, she didn’t need to build hers from scratch. The work desk was covered with prototypes that she just needed to update. 

She stood up and watched the blue of the repulsor shine and whirl. Morgan was almost there. This journey hadn’t reached its end yet.


End file.
